Gobron is a subject of The Passion of the Holy Martyr Gobron, who was Abducted from the Castle of Q'ueli (წამებაჲ წმიდისა მოწამისა გობრონისი, რომელი განიყვანეს ყუელის ციხით), composed by Bishop Stephen of T'beti (Stepane Mtbevari) at the behest of the Georgian Bagratid prince Ashot I of Tao between 914 and 918.[1] The narrative of Gobron's martyrdom unfolds against the background of the military expedition by Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj, the Sajid emir of Azerbaijan, in Georgia in 914. This campaign was one of the last major attempts on the part of the Abbasid Caliphate to retain its crumbling hold of the Georgian lands, which, at that time, were a patchwork of rival, native states and Muslim holdings.[4]

Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj, the Abul-Kasim of the medieval Georgian sources, invaded Georgia from Armenia. He advanced, through the Muslim emirate of Tiflis, into Kakheti, whence he moved into Kartli and invaded Samtskhe and Javakheti. Unable to seize hold of the fortress of Tmogvi, the emir laid siege to Q'ueli, which was then in possession of the Georgian Bagratid prince Gurgen of Tao. Q'ueli held out for 28 days: the young commander Gobron, whose original name—we are told by his biography—was Mikel (Michael), mounted a fierce resistance and made a series of sorties, but he finally felt oblidged to surrender to the emir. The Georgian king Adarnase succeeded in ransoming certain nobles who had been seized by the Muslims in Q'ueli, but Gobron was kept by the emir in captivity. Neither the promise of honors, nor tortures and witnessing the massacre of 133 of his comrades-in-arms could inveigle Gobron into renouncing Christianity as demanded by Yusuf. According to the Passion, Gobron, grateful to Christ for being chosen as a martyr, met his death through decapitation.[1]